A Push Up Workout Where I Do One Set Everyday For 21 Straight Days

For my first ever lifestyle experiment, I
decided to do a push up workout that consisted of one set of pushups,
every day for 21 straight days.

Every day, I would hit the floor some time during the day, and see how
many pushups I could do without stopping.

The
reasons behind this experiment are not what you might expect. Here are
a couple of reasons why I did NOT do this experiment...

1.
To get buff. It's hard to believe, but it made no difference to me if I
looked exactly the same after doing the experiment. All I truly cared
about was the number that I completed each day.

2.
To become physically
stronger. I didn't do this experiment because I wanted to be able to
lift things around the house easier. Yes, I wanted to be stronger so I
could do more push
ups. But other than that, any added strength didn't really matter to me.

Here are the reasons why I DID do this experiment...

1.
The challenge. First, I wanted to see if I could be disciplined enough
to continue the program for 21 straight days. With the Christmas
holidays floating around, I knew it was going to be tough. But I wanted
to see how much could be accomplished in a relatively short amount of
time.

2. The quest for 100 push ups. I wrote an article awhile back about how
anyone could eventually get to 100 push ups.
It inspired a lot of people, including myself! So I wanted to see if I
could start walking the walk instead of just talking the talk.

3.
To try my first ever personal development experiment. I've been wanting
to add some first-hand experiments to the site for awhile now. And I
finally decided that it's now or never. I think this is possibly the
easiest 21
day experiment you can possibly do. Seeing that it only takes a
commitment of
about two minutes per day!

The Goal And Prediction

My
goal, first and foremost, was to see if I could actually go 21 straight
days of doing a set of push ups. I wanted to see if I could...

1. stick with it
2. not forget or make excuses and miss a day

Another
goal I had was to reach 50 push ups. If I'm being perfectly honest, I
would have predicted that I wouldn't reach this
goal. I used to be a pretty serious weight lifter when I was younger,
and during the strongest time in my life, the most I ever did was 44
push ups.

Starting this experiment, I was nowhere near the strength that I
used to be. While I used to be able to bench press 225 pounds, today I
would be lucky to lift 175.

Nevertheless, I was hoping to reach 50 push ups somehow.

How The Experiment Was Conducted

The experiment was as simple as I could possibly make it. Drop and hit
the floor every day and see how many push ups I could do.

I
could do my set of push ups any time during the day. I could also do it
from anywhere. In fact, my experiment ended up going through four
different houses of relatives for the holiday season!

I had no other restrictions whatsoever. Just do a set of push ups. Then
write down how many I did. Now...

I know this isn't the most
recommended way to go about having a push ups workout. When you lift
weights, you aren't
supposed to work the same muscles on consecutive days. It takes
your muscles roughly 48 hours to fully recover from a workout.

However, since I was only doing one set, I thought I could bend the
rules a little bit.

If
I was doing this the scientific way, I would probably do about 5-10
sets of push ups, and do them every other day. But seeing that
this experiment was more of a challenge to follow through with a
program, I thought doing one set every day seemed like a good enough
challenge.

Push Ups Analysis

So what kind of results did I get? Here's a chart detailing my
results...

Date (Year 2008)

Push-Ups Completed

Dec. 9

38

Dec. 10

43

Dec. 11

41

Dec. 12

45

Dec. 13

41

Dec. 14

36

Dec. 15

42

Dec. 16

46

Dec. 17

43

Dec. 18

41

Dec. 19

47

Dec. 20

41

Dec. 21

50

Dec. 22

47

Dec. 23

47

Dec. 24

56

Dec. 25

52

Dec. 26

46

Dec. 27

50

Dec. 28

43

Dec. 29

51

As you can see, the numbers fluctuated on a daily basis.
Even though each day I was hoping to do one more push up then I did the
day before.

As you can also see, I did
in
fact reach my goal of 50 push ups! Woo hoo! I'll never forget it
actually. I was doing the set in my in-laws bathroom before I was about
to take a shower. And by some miracle, I was able to do exactly 50!

Even
though the numbers fluctuated, you can definitely tell that I was
getting stronger. Something I wasn't convinced would happen by doing
only one set each day.

I have to proudly admit that I was able
to do 47 push ups on Dec. 19th despite being hungover from a Christmas
party. And I also must point out that on Dec. 28th, the reason I only
made it to 43 push ups was probably because I had just ate about two
pounds of spaghetti!

If this was the perfect experiment, I would
have done each set of push ups at the exact same time each day.
Probably first thing in the morning when I woke up. But I wanted this
to be easy, so I didn't give that limitation.

Conclusions

I
have to admit, I was pretty ecstatic when I reached that 50 push ups
goal. I was pretty convinced that it would never happen!

But
seeing as it did, it's given me a whole new level of confidence about
my push ups theory. I'm
thoroughly convinced that if I stick to this exact same program (maybe
I'll skip Sundays) for the next few months, I know I'll be able to
reach that goal of 100 push ups.

So that's what I will likely do. Whenever I get to 100 push ups, I'll
be sure to add a video of me huffing and puffing. For now, I'm still
trying to figure out how to use my video camera on the computer.

If you like challenges, I would love for you to give this a try and tell me how it went. It's
fun seeing how such a little bit of effort every day can lead to when
you stay commited.